This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Optical sights are typically used in conjunction with a firearm to aid a shooter in properly aligning a barrel of the firearm with a desired target. Properly aligning the barrel of the firearm relative to a target results in a projectile fired from the firearm impacting the target at a desired location. Conventional optical sights are typically mounted at a top surface of the firearm and include an aiming point for use by the shooter in aligning the optical sight and, thus, the barrel of the firearm relative to the target. Such aiming points may be illuminated to further aid a shooter in quickly and accurately aligning the optical sight and firearm relative to a target.
Optical sights may be used in conjunction with a variety of firearms and, as such, may provide different features depending on the particular firearm and/or application. For example, an optical sight mounted on a rifle for use by a sniper is typically configured to provide increased magnification of a target to allow the shooter to be positioned at a location far away from the target. Such optical sights are typically somewhat lengthy to accommodate an optics train that is capable of adequately magnifying a target. Further, such optical sights are typically designed for use by a shooter that has sufficient time to properly align the optical sight and firearm relative to a target.
Other optical sights are designed for use in close-target situations and are therefore compact and designed to allow a shooter to quickly train the optical sight and firearm on a target. One such optical sight is a so-called reflex sight that is useful in close-target situations by providing the shooter with fast-target acquisition and aiming of a firearm. Such reflex sights are typically more compact than an optical sight used on a sniper rifle, for example, to allow mounting of other systems on the firearm (i.e., laser pointers, ranging devices, etc.) and to reduce the overall size and weight of the combined firearm and optical sight. Further, such reflex sights provide a field-of-view that allows the shooter to quickly position the optical sight and firearm relative to a target without reducing the situational awareness of the shooter.
While conventional reflex sights adequately provide an aiming point for use by a shooter in aligning a firearm relative to a target, conventional reflex sights cannot provide a large field-of-view (i.e., having a clear aperture diameter greater than approximately 22 millimeters), as doing so typically requires an optics train associated with the reflex sight to be lengthy, thereby increasing the overall size of the reflex sight. The lengthy optics train is required to provide an optical path having a long focal length to minimize parallax with customary spherical lenses. Reflex sight manufacturers therefore strive to balance the desire to have a compact reflex sight with the desire to provide a large field-of-view, all while minimizing parallax.
In addition to the foregoing constraints with respect to the size of the field-of-view, overall size and shape of the reflex sight, and the amount of parallax, conventional reflex sights typically require one or more batteries to constantly power an illumination device associated with the reflex sight. The power supplied to the illumination device is used to illuminate an aiming point and typically comes from one or more batteries. Because conventional reflex sights typically incorporate only a single power source (i.e., one or more batteries) in constant use, conventional reflex sights require a shooter to frequently change the batteries of the sight, which is often difficult in a combat or other law-enforcement situation.